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Crush

Chapter 3: Secret

"Earth to Teà, are you in there?"

"Dude, if she realizes that your hand is in her face, she'll break it off."

Blinking several times, Teà blushed in embarrassment, realizing that Joey's hand was up in her face. She surely wouldn't let anyone's hand come close to her face – certainly not Joey's hand, which was covered in crumbs and ketchup. She was no germaphobe, but she liked to be as clean as she possibly could, thank you very much.

"Sorry, Joey," she replied, with maybe a touch of attitude, as she flicked away his hand with her thumb and pointer finger. "I was just thinking." Yeah, she knew that sounded half-assed.

"What, our conversations not good enough for ya?" And he just brushed strays of his dirty blonde hair with the same messy hand. Great.

Teà truly needed female friends.

"I'm sorry. I'm just… tired from practice," Teà explained, hoping that her signature smile would be enough for Joey to let it go. She certainly never got this much trouble from Yugi or Tristan, who were both still finishing their burgers. "I've never felt so sore in my life."

"Your teacher givin' ya trouble?" Joey asked, the amusement from his brown eyes turning serious. She was touched though that Joey was protective of her; she knew that he would do anything for her – even beating someone up for her (no matter who it was) and so she basically thought of him as the big brother that she never had.

"No, no, it's nothing like that," Teà quickly assured her friend.

"You have another recital coming up, right?" Yugi inquired, who was sitting across from Teà and beside Joey. He was nearly finished his burger, judging from the crumbs still left on his plate.

"Yeah, in about a month."

"If anyone's makin' ya work too hard, I'll put 'em in their place." It was kind of hard to be annoyed with Joey when he gave off an aura that rivaled a golden retriever; his smile was just too contagious.

"I appreciate the thought, but it's fine." She really didn't like imagining any scenario involving Joey chewing out her instructors.

"If you're working that hard, you'll probably make it into Julliard," Tristan commented, dipping his remaining fries into ketchup. "You applied for that, didn't you?" Teà always appreciated the fact that Tristan was more level-headed than Joey was, despite the fact that the two of them got into wrestling matches all the time.

"I'm surprised that you remembered," Teà snorted, unable to hide her amusement any longer. "Yeah, I applied, and no, I didn't hear back yet." Just thinking about it made her heart skip a beat.

"Is that why your head is up in the clouds?"

"I guess." Honestly, Teà tried to not think about it too much; her mental health would only suffer if she kept obsessing over the 'what if I don't get in' thoughts. She knew she was a talented dancer with a penchant for hard work, passion, and optimism. She knew that no matter what the outcome was, she would still have a future with dance in it. Giving up wasn't something that Teà wanted to do. Period. She would just follow her heart and see where it took her.

"You know we all believe in you, right?" Yugi smiled in Teà's direction, and she couldn't help but return it; Yugi had a way of cheering her up whenever she was not at her best. "They'd be lucky to have you."

"I thought I was the one who's in charge with the friendship speeches," Teà joked, as she casually took a fry from Tristan's plate and munched on it. Even though she hung out with the guys on a regular basis, it didn't mean she had to stuff her face like one. That being said, she took up a few of their habits from time to time. "When did I graduate from that?"

"Our little girl's growing up, guys," Tristan wept sarcastically, tossing an arm around Teà's shoulder, bringing her in for a side hug. "She'll be gone before we know it. Partying off in New York City, making some new friends."

"Oh come on, you know no one I'll meet will replace you," Teà teased. "No one can eat like you, for one."

"I feel personally betrayed by that statement. I see how it is," Tristan immediately pulled away from the embrace, just as everyone burst into laughter.

"You have some ketchup on your cheek by the way," Teà pointed out.

"Thanks."

"I dunno what to say; are ya like his mother or his girlfriend?" Joey said, attempting to say it with a straight face – but it was clear to everyone that he was failing. Hard.

"Yeah, neither," Teà sighed, having a faint idea where this conversation was going. She really just didn't want to hear them talk about the girls Tristan and Joey think have 'sexy, dynamite bodies'. That was enough for her to want to puke.

"What's wrong with you? She's like a sister to me, dude." Ok, he didn't have to make it sound like it would be the worst thing in the world.

"Plus, he already has someone he likes, so, there's that," Teà snuck a glance in Tristan's direction, just in time to see his cheeks burning bright red. Yeah, she knew that he had a thing for Joey's sister Serenity; at this point, everyone here knew it. It was pretty obvious from how he acted around her, no matter how many times Tristan tried to deny it. Although Teà was unsure of whether he had the courage to tell her how he felt about her; as far as Teà knew, it was an unrequited crush. But Tristan certainly was persistent when it came to getting her attention. She would peg him as the type to ask her out on a date via Love Actually style, with his question written on a big piece of cardboard.

Now that she thought about it, if someone tried that with her, Teà would find it pretty romantic.

"Please don't remind me," Joey groaned. "I would really rather not think about Tristan havin' the hots for Serenity."

"I mean, I think it's kind of cute," Teà piped in with a small chuckle, as she adjusted the sleeves of her denim jacket.

"You think everything is cute," Tristan snorted. "Didn't you fawn over Duke when he first transferred?"

"No, I didn't. I'm not that shallow," Teà responded, with a hint of annoyance. "Why do you all think that?" In all honesty, she never found Duke Devlin that cute; he was overconfident, not to mention that he fawned over every girl in their class. Teà never liked him to begin with, considering that he was hardly nice to people who didn't worship him. She still remembered how much of a jerk he was to Joey when they all first met him. It took her some time to warm up to him.

"I don't know. I thought he looked like he was your type."

"Nope." She didn't waste any time to try to shoot that idea down. "And like you would know what my type is." She really wanted to make that point across. Apparently they all thought she was shallow enough to fall for guys like Duke.

"Yugi, you've known Teà longer than we have. What's her type?"

Yugi, who looked like he was enjoying this conversation way too much (he was just missing a bucket of popcorn), merely shrugged his shoulders. "I don't really know, you guys. We never talked about that kind of stuff." It was true; throughout their childhoods, neither Teà or Yugi had the desire to talk about something like crushes to each other.

"And why is this important?" Teà asked, before crossing her arms together.

"C'mon, Teà, we were always curious about your love life," Joey sang, wiggling his eyebrows up and down. "Don't ya think we'd be interested if ya found someone?"

Teà was this close to throwing something at him – and she didn't care if it happened to be a napkin dispenser.

Instead, she groaned loudly, as she felt her face burning up again. She made it a point to cover it with both of her hands, whilst taking slow breaths. "Since when did you guys care about what goes in my life?" It wasn't like she wanted to hide anything from her friends at all; she just didn't think that this was the kind of discussion they would be interested in.

If Teà happened to meet someone, and if she happened to develop romantic feelings for him, wouldn't she be entitled to keep it to herself for a bit?

"Leave her alone, guys. She doesn't have to tell you anything."

"Thank you, Yugi."

"But aren't you curious too, Yug?" Joey nudged Yugi in the shoulder-blade, clearly not wanting to drop the subject. "Doncha wanna know what kind of guy she likes?"

The look that Teà threw to her childhood friend, however, said differently. The look that she was giving him was akin to a puppy eyed expression. She usually saved this expression for desperate times – and Yugi usually fell for it.

"Now that you mention it…" Teà widened her eyes. That. Traitor.

"I hate you all." So much for Yugi coming to her rescue. Apparently, he could only act so chivalrous when he felt like it. Maybe he would make a gallant knight to some other girl, but not to Te .

"No, ya don't, Teà, you love us." She made it a point to roll her eyes in Joey's direction.

"I need some female friends," Teà sighed, sinking back into her seat.

"What would they have that we don't?" Tristan interjected.

"Honestly? They wouldn't be pestering me this much about my love life like you jerks are. I mean, whoever I have a crush on is none of your business." Ok, so Teà hadn't meant to say that last part out loud. And she also hadn't meant to conjure up an image of Yami in her mind just now. Surely those two things didn't co-relate.

She hated digging herself into holes – and she also hated having to get herself out of them.

"Wait. What? Now ya gotta spill the details, Teà. Who's the lucky guy? Is it someone we know?" And before Teà knew it, Joey's face was an inch away from her own. Twice in one day must be some kind of record. "I promise that Tristan won't laugh at you." So much for the guarantee that no one else would laugh at her.

"I really don't see how you getting in my face will make me tell you anything. But if you must know, I don't have time to date. So…" Teà replied, sounding much more confident than she actually was. Maybe it was the fact that she was finally running out of patience for her friends. Yeah, it was definitely that. "It really doesn't matter."

She loved her friends, she really did, but they acted like the brothers that she never knew she needed in her life.

"And I really am tired, so, I think I'm going to head off." A perfectly placed yawn at her disposal. Perfect. And all Teà had to do afterwards was stretch her arms. "Love you guys. I'll see you around."

Before Joey could protest, she quickly laid out a few dollar bills on the table. Tristan, who seemed to get the message, easily swivelled his legs from underneath the booth to the side, letting Teà squeeze by him to get up.

After giving her friends one last smile, she turned on her heal to walk briskly towards the exit.

She thought she heard Joey saying something about 'finding it out eventually', which only made her sigh in exasperation.

But it didn't stop her from smiling.

.